Students protested due to poor conditions in dormitories at Bjelave and Nedžarići

(Patria) - Dissatisfied with the living conditions in the student dormitories at Bjelave and Nedžarići, in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, students held peaceful protests today, and they are announcing a protest in front of the Sarajevo Canton Government building if their demands are not met.

The Association of Students of the Sarajevo Student Center organized a protest within the grounds of the Bjelave Dormitory, and in the afternoon, they announced a similar gathering within the grounds of the Nedžarići Dormitory.

Students are demanding that additional funds be allocated to resolve the accumulated problems.

“We are protesting to warn the Canton Government to finally react, because we sent them a letter on December 27th, to which they have not yet responded. We want to highlight the problems of students, among which the most urgent are the kitchen and restaurant, where there is a shortage of staff, and students are suffering due to canceled tenders and a lack of supplies,” said the president of the Association of Students of the Sarajevo Student Center, Aldin Mešan.

A pressing problem is also the extremely poor condition of the boiler room at the Bjelave Dormitory, as well as the inadequate sanitary facilities in some of the dormitory pavilions.

The Student Association also stated that they expect systemic solutions, including the full integration of the Student Center into the University of Sarajevo, and they stated that they will not allow the privatization of this institution.

They emphasized that it is a shame for society that the conditions in many prisons are better than those in the dormitories of the Student Center in Sarajevo.

They stated that they are not social cases and are not responsible for the situation in society, but that they are the future of the country and deserve adequate living conditions during their studies.

The director of the Public Institution Sarajevo Student Center, Amar Dovadžija, supports the students' demands and personally joined them in today's protests with a message that he is ashamed of the situation he found.

He said that the problem of accumulated debts he inherited in the company has been resolved and that he hopes the relevant authorities will be receptive and help resolve the issues. He added that the KS Government has already announced an additional two million KM for this purpose, out of the required ten million.